7 authentic ways to experience Bhutan
From meeting local Bhutanese in rural villages and experiencing the country’s colourful Buddhist festivals to hikes that reveal the best of Bhutan’s cultural and natural highlights, these seven itineraries with KE Adventure Travel allows you to see Bhutan at its most authentic and immersive…
Words: Bradley Mayhew
1: Witness a colourful tshechu
There’s literally no other country on Earth quite like Bhutan. The world’s only Vajrayana (Tibetan) Buddhist state, it is a constitutional democracy headed by a widely revered king and guided by the sustainable principles of Gross National Happiness. It is the last great Himalayan kingdom. Perhaps the most eye-catching expressions of Bhutan’s identity are the country’s religious festivals (tshechu), when you can join locals dressed in traditional robes and watch in amazement as monks in colourful costumes perform sacred masked dances accompanied by a cacophony of drums, horns and cymbals. It’s an unmissable experience and one of the most photogenic events in the Himalaya. KE Adventures’ Festivals of Bhutan combines Bhutan’s main highlights with several lesser-known festivals such as Talo Goemba and Thangbi Mani, allowing you to enjoy a more intimate and up-close festival experience than you get at the more touristed festivals of Paro and Thimphu. The itinerary also takes in Bhutan’s little visited central Bumthang region.
2: Walk the Druk Path Trek
The best way to gain a true sense of Bhutan is to combine a trek with visits to Bhutan’s cultural highlights. Perhaps the best short trek in the country is the Druk Path, which traces the traditional route between Bhutan’s two most important towns, Paro and Thimphu. At five days it’s fairly short but is still challenging, taking you through pristine wilderness and past lakeshore campsites, a historic dzong, or fortress-monastery, and one of the country’s largest meditation retreat centres. Throw in a visit to the Taktshang, or Tiger’s Nest monastery, which clings limpet-like to mountain cliffs in the upper Paro valley and combine with a visit to the Paro or Thimphu tshechu festivals, as KE Adventures’ Druk Path itinerary does. You can also add on visits to the capital of Thimphu and Bhutan’s most beautiful dzong at Punakha.
3: Be mesmerised by monasteries
The easiest way of getting to Bhutan is on a mountain flight from nearby Kathmandu, so it makes perfect sense to combine the sights of Nepal with the highlights of Bhutan in a two-for-one trip. Comparing the former Himalayan kingdoms is fascinating; the two have followed quite different modern paths but you can clearly see the religious and cultural threads that run between them.
KE Adventures’ Highlights of Nepal and Bhutan combines the Tibetan Buddhist sights of Kathmandu’s Swayambhunath Temple and Bodhnath stupa with the sacred Hindu cremation site of Pashupatinath, and then adds on the Newari hilltop village of Bandipur. In Bhutan the tour visits the country’s most impressive monastery at Punakha Dzong, and even throws in a major monastic festival at Paro or Thimphu. The stay in Paro includes a visit to a traditional farmhouse for some authentic home-cooked Bhutanese ema datse (chillies and cheese), Bhutan’s fiery national dish, followed by a soak in a traditional hot stone bath.
4: Meet the locals of the Laya village
Video credit: Bhutan Department of Tourism/Scarlette DG
There are a few villages remaining in the Himalaya that seem rooted in a different era, set apart from the rest of the world and which manage to preserve a unique traditional culture; the remote Bhutanese community of Laya is one of these precious places. At an altitude of 3,840m, the village was once a major stop on the trans-Himalayan trading route and is considered to be a bae-yul, or sacred Buddhist hidden land.
The most memorable way to reach Laya is on a 12-day trek across the roof of Bhutan, through what feels like an untouched corner of the Himalaya. KE Adventures’ Laya trek goes one further by timing the trek with Laya’s annual Royal Highlander festival, a captivating mountain gathering which features horse and yak races, wrestling competitions, traditional dancing and the chance to see local layap women wearing their iconic conical bamboo hats. Visit Laya soon, though; a road is inching towards the village and is now just a day’s walk away.
Photo credit: Department of Bhutan
5: Watch rare black necked cranes
Every November Bhutanese farmers in the Phobjikha Valley cast their eyes to the heavens and look for the first arrival of the 600 or so black-necked cranes that spend the winter here after crossing the Himalayan range from Tibet. Spotting these graceful birds through morning mist on a short hike around the valley is one of Bhutan’s great wildlife-watching experiences.
KE Adventures’ Black Necked Cranes and Royal Orchid trip times a November visit to Phobjikha with the local monastery’s Black Necked Crane festival, and then tags on a relaxed five-day community-based trek further east to little-visited Drongthang village. Village-based treks like this one offer the opportunity to learn first-hand from villagers how to plough fields, brew butter tea and play khuru, the Bhutanese sport of lawn darts. It’ll get you under the skin of the country in a far more profound way than sightseeing alone can ever do.
6: Hike high in the Himalaya
If the 7,326m Chomolhari peak were in Nepal it would be swamped by thousands of trekkers, dozens of trekking lodges and caravans of Goretex-clad climbers. The fact that it’s in Bhutan means there are no lodges, no crowds and no litter, just astonishing views of the mountain’s eastern face from meadows at Jangothang. You will also enjoy nearby views of Jitchu Drake peak reflected in the twin lakes of Tshophu. This is a high mountain junction with few rivals in the Himalaya.
KE Adventures’ Chomolhari Basecamp and Bonte La trip combines three nights at Jangothang with the annual Chomolhari festival and then heads off the map for three days of wilderness walking, crossing the 4890 Bonte La and two other passes, for a loop itinerary that takes you into wild, untamed mountain scenery without the need for a time-consuming access drive. As with the best trekking itineraries, it also visits the iconic Tiger’s Nest Monastery.
7: Take on the toughest trail in the world
Are you up for a challenge? Bhutan’s Snowman trek connects the country’s remotest mountain valleys, highest passes and most exquisite high-altitude wilderness into one unrivalled 24-day walk that is quite simply the finest trek in the world. The logistics for this trek are complex and you need to time it perfectly to avoid being snowed in between high passes, so you need an experienced company like KE Adventures, who have been running this trek itinerary for years. The itinerary runs from west to east along the spine of the Great Himalaya, crossing 11 high passes, spending two full weeks above 4,000m and traversing Lingshi, Laya and Lunana – three of the Himalaya’s most remote and untouched regions. The highlights are too numerous to mention (the views of Chomolhari and Gangkar Phuensum, the world’s highest unclimbed peak, spring to mind though) but this trek is more than the sum of its parts. You’ll be one of a very select group of people to have competed one of the world’s greatest mountain walks.
Travel with the true Bhutan experts
KE Adventure Travel are true Himalayan experts. Mountain and trekking connoisseurs, they have been operating tours in the Himalaya for over 40 years. Crucially they’ve been using the same Bhutanese agents for all this time, working with two generations of the same team to forge long-lasting ties that ensure the best planning and operations team in the country. Decades of on-the-ground experience have gone into their Bhutan itineraries. Check our their Bhutan page and their blog for all things Himalayan.
